Castrol Insights Reveal that Big Spenders in European Football Reap the Rewards

Manchester City Set to Break into the Premier League Top Three

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

-- Manchester City's summer spending should guarantee a top three finish

-- The biggest spenders are more likely to end up winning the title

-- Promoted teams must spend heavily to survive

Castrol Performance Analysts establish a proven link between the amount a club spends on players and its prospects for success, including:-

MANCHESTER CITY'S SUMMER SPENDING SHOULD GUARANTEE A TOP THREE FINISH

Manchester City's £124m investment in new players makes them the Premier League's biggest spenders this summer. Castrol Performance Analysis shows that 90% of the top spending clubs in each of Europe's five major leagues have gone on to finish in the top three over the last four seasons.

Mark Hughes's spending spree has seen high-profile names like Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Roque Santa Cruz arrive at the City of Manchester Stadium to join existing stars, including Robinho.

By applying analysis, technology and innovation to football, Castrol Analysts have shown that this level of expenditure should be enough to break open the closed shop at the head of the table where Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have filled the top four places for the last four years.

City's expected progress mirrors a trend that runs right through the league table, underlining the link between spending money on new players and eventual league position.

In the Premier League, clubs who maintained or improved their position over the course of the season spent an average of almost £35m on new players while those clubs who found themselves going backwards spent only £30m and that pattern was maintained across the other four major leagues in Europe.

THE BIGGEST SPENDERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO END UP WINNING THE TITLE

Castrol Performance Analysis shows that 12 out of 20 clubs who spent the most money on new players in Europe's five major leagues went on to win the title over the last four years.

Real Madrid can justifiably believe they can loosen Barcelona's grip on the La Liga crown after spending an enormous £229m during the summer transfer window, a figure that dwarves the expenditure of their rivals in Spain.

And Manchester City have grounds for optimism they might even topple current champions and city rivals Manchester United this year and clinch their first title in 42 years.

The season's biggest spenders have become champions in three of the last four seasons in La Liga and France's Ligue 1.

PROMOTED TEAMS MUST SPEND HEAVILY TO SURVIVE

Newly-promoted clubs that managed to survive their first season in the Premier League spent an average of £24 million on players, according to Castrol Performance Analysis.

That's £9m more than the average £15m spent by those clubs that suffered immediate relegation.

And that means that Burnley are the club most likely to make an immediate return to Championship despite their early successes in beating champions Manchester United and Everton, who finished fifth last season. Burnley have spent just £6.9m after ending their 33-year exile from the top-flight.

Castrol Performance Analysts have found that the trend is continued across four of the five major European leagues although overall expenditure is far greater in England.

In Germany, Hoffenheim spent £10.6m last season – three times the average needed to stay up in the Bundesliga – and finished an impressive seventh. And in Italy's Serie A, Napoli spent £41.4m when they went up in 2007, helping them to eighth place.

The only league that did not fit the pattern was Spain's La Liga, where teams that outspent their direct promoted rivals were actually more likely to go back down. In fact, Celta Vigo spent just £890k after winning promotion in 2005 and still managed to finish sixth.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest spenders over the last four seasons have been in the Premier League where clubs have spent an average of around £31m per year – almost twice the average across the five major leagues.

Castrol will continue to bring their expertise and passion to football by providing fans with unique insights into what it takes for teams and players to deliver winning performances leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

Notes to Editors:

Castrol's commercial success is underpinned by their ability to deliver improved performance through the application of analysis, technology and innovation. This has been the key to Castrol's success over the last 100 years and led to the development of superior performing lubricants including Castrol Edge, Castrol Magnatec, Castrol GTX and Castrol Power 1.

Castrol believes that by applying the same expertise to football, they will enhance fans' understanding of the game by providing unique insights in to winning performance at both the FIFA Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

To view the press release along with the supporting data, click the link below:

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